IN­VEST­MENT FIRM CLO­SURES IN CANADA TO RISE, SUR­VEY SAYS

The num­ber of se­cu­ri­ties firms op­er­at­ing in Canada is likely to shrink fur­ther amid com­pe­ti­tion and es­ca­lat­ing costs from tech­nol­ogy and reg­u­la­tions, ac­cord­ing to a sur­vey from the coun­try’s main in­dus­try group. Fifty- five per cent of chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cers of sur­veyed in­vest­ment deal­ers ex­pect the num­ber of firms ex­it­ing the in­dus­try in the next two years to be higher than the pre­vi­ous two years, the In­vest­ment In­dus­try As­so­ci­a­tion of Canada said Thurs­day. “Roughly onequar­ter of the small firms in the in­vest­ment in­dus­try will con­tinue to strug­gle from dif­fi­cult com­pet­i­tive pres­sures and the steady es­ca­la­tion in fixed costs from tech­nol­ogy and reg­u­la­tory change,” IIAC chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer Ian Rus­sell, pic­tured, said in a speech Thurs­day in Toronto.